Sammy Wilson: Vaccine offer shows Irish Republic that UK – not EU – is its true friend

That is the view of DUP MP Sammy Wilson, after The Sunday Times reported that a plan is afoot to “offer 3.7 million Covid jabs to Ireland”.

The report quoted from an anonymous “cabinet source” in Westminster, and claimed that this would be the first time that the UK has exported vaccines to an EU nation – a move which Brussels may see as an attempt to undermine its own centralised handling of the Covid crisis.

The UK has been far ahead of the Republic of Ireland when it comes to vaccinating its citizenry, and NI’s First Minister Arlene Foster says the idea of sharing vaccines with the Dublin government is “a runner”.

“I think it’s the right thing that should happen,” she said.

“I think it’s a very practical thing to do and I think it should happen and hopefully it will.”

A spokeswoman for the Taoiseach’s office told the News Letter: “The UK has previously indicated that, once it has achieved a high level of vaccination of its own population, it would consider sharing vaccines with other countries.

“We are not aware of any specific plans to share vaccines with Ireland at this stage.

“Ireland and the UK government maintain close contact across all matters of common interest.”

Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said: “There isn’t an offer that I’m aware of, or that the Government’s aware of, from the UK.”

But he added: “Of course, if there was we’d be very interested in talking to the British Government about that.

“Let’s look at the actual numbers here in terms of what’s likely and when.

“Currently, 55% of UK adults have received their first jab, less than 6% of adults in the UK have received their second jab, so there are tens of millions of people still to get their first jab in the UK.

“There may well be excess vaccines at some point in the future but I don’t think we’re realistically looking at that for many, many weeks yet.”

Nevertheless Sammy Wilson – who, as DUP Brexit spokesman has been sharply criticial of the Irish Republic’s treatment of Northern Ireland – said the UK’s willingness to share its vital jabs stands as a stark example for Dublin of who its genuine friends are on the international stage.

“First of all, it’s not in our interests to have coronavirus rampant in the Irish Republic due to the incompetence of the EU,” said Mr Wilson.

“Secondly, despite the way in which the Irish Republic has treated Britain throughout the negotiations with the EU – and it continues to treat Britain in the most dispicable way – we aren’t churlish enough to withold help if it’s available.

“The third thing is that it’ll be interesting to see whether or not the EU, not wanting to have its own ineptitude exposed, tries to find some lame excuse for refusing to allow Ireland to take the vaccine from the UK.

“My message to the Irish leadership is, first of all, recognise your real friends are Britain, your real market is Britain, the country that you depend upon is Britain – not the EU.

“Don’t allow yourself to be brow-beaten by the EU, who are likely to use you in pursuit of their wider battle with the UK.

“And recognise that despite the abominable way which you have treated the UK and Northern Ireland in particular over the protocol, unionists in Northern Ireland... are bigger than some of the EU-blinded politicians in the Irish Republic”.

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